John Blakely, a nine-year veteran of Sony Online Entertainment and most recently its vice president of development, has apparently left the company for casual-games behemoth Zynga. Blakely's LinkedIn resumé has him departing SOE as of last month to become general manager at Zynga.

Update: Sony Online Entertainment has confirmed Blakely's resignation and departure. In a statement provided to Kotaku, SOE thanked him for "the passion and leadership he brought to work every day and fully support him in his future endeavors."

Blakely successor is Lorin Jameson, executive director of development for SOE, who oversaw all development teams at SOE's Austin studio for the past five years.